Category Astronomy/Space

This illustration shows a star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. Material from the thick disk flows along the star’s magnetic field lines and is deposited onto the star’s surface. When material hits the star, it lights up brightly. The star’s irregular illumination allows astronomers to measure the gap between the disk and the star by using a technique called “photo-reverberation” or “light echoes.” First, astronomers look at how much time it takes for light from the star to arrive at Earth. Then, they compare that with the time it takes for light from the star to bounce off the inner edge of the disk and then arrive at Earth. That time difference is used to measure distance, as the speed of light is constant. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For the 1st time, astronomers used echoes of light t...

An artist’s impression of the French National Centre for Space Studies satellite Microscope, which scientists hope will help find a gap in the general relativity theory developed by Albert Einstein

The French “Microscope” orbiter will try to poke a hole in one of Einstein’s most famous theories, which provides the basis for our modern understanding of gravity. Scientists will use the kit to measure how 2 different pieces of metal—one titanium and the other a platinum-rhodium alloy—behave in orbit.

“In space, it is possible to study the relative motion of two bodies in almost perfect and permanent free fall aboard an orbiting satellite, shielded from perturbations encountered on Earth,” said Arianespace, which put the satellite into orbit on Monday.
Einstein’s theory suggests that in pe...

Beagle-2 landing site. Credit: Yu Tao and Jan-Peter Muller, UCL

The surface of Mars – including the location of Beagle-2 – has been shown in unprecedented detail by UCL scientists using a revolutionary image stacking and matching technique. Exciting pictures of the Beagle-2 lander, the ancient lakebeds discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover, NASA’s MER-A rover tracks and Home Plate’s rocks have been released by the UCL researchers who stacked and matched images taken from orbit, to reveal objects at a resolution up to 5X greater than previously achieved.

Called Super-Resolution Restoration (SRR) it could be used to search for other artefacts from past failed landings as well as identify safe landing locations for future rover missions...

The elegant simplicity of NGC 4111 hides a more violent history than you might think. NGC 4111 is a lenticular, or lens-shaped, galaxy about 50 million light-years from us in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs).Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

Lenticular galaxies are an intermediate type of galaxy between an elliptical and a spiral. They host aged stars like ellipticals and have a disk like a spiral. However, that’s where the similarities end: They differ from ellipticals because they have a bulge and a thin disk, but are different from spirals because lenticular discs contain very little gas and dust, and do not feature the many-armed structure that is characteristic of spiral galaxies.

At first sight, NGC 4111 looks like a fairly uneventful gala...